Germany: Round-up & pictures

The 2018 Lower Saxony wolf expedition in Germany covered over 730 km on foot and bike over ten survey days. Over 200 scat samples for DNA and diet analyses were collected.

Peter Schütte, the expedition scientist and a wolf commissioner in Lower Saxony calls this “another great result after the 2017 expedition“ and is “delighted with the quality and quantity of the data collected”, which he presented at an important conference in September.

Dr. Matthias Hammer, founder and executive director of Biosphere Expeditions, adds: “This is another remarkable result. I hope our work will help to convince those in Germany who are against the wolf’s return, because being a wolf country not only brings challenges, but also opportunities. The debate about the wolf’s return is often clouded by emotions, polemics or even populist arguments. Problems are overemphasised and opportunities are hardly ever discussed. Why not, for example, a little bit of the Masai Mara – with livestock, predators and tourism – in the famously picturesque Lüneburg Heath? I hope our work will open people’s eyes for opportunities.“